The day book. (Chicago, Ill.) 1911-1917, December 09, 1915, LAST EDITION, Image 12

Image and text provided by University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Library, Urbana, IL

583855BS3ii3show the "chop hitter" has the edgeon the "free hitter" in meeting theball, which is the bi& idea in batting.The "chop hitter" grips his bat farup on the handle and pokes the ball.The "free hitters" grips at the endand slashes away.The most pronounced "chop hitters" are Buck Herzog of the Reds,Miller Huggins of the Cardinals andJohnny Evers of the Braves. Themost pronounced "free swingers" areGawy Cravath of the Phils, DuffyLewis, Boston Red Sox, and HeinieZimmerman, Cub.Herzog struck out only 21 timesin 155 games this year, a remarkablerecord. Cravath fanned 77 times in150 games. Lewis breezed 63 timesin 154 games; Evers 16 times in 83games.The dope does not work in thecases of Huggins and Zimmerman,because their cases are differentHuggins fanned 68 times, Zim 33.Huggins works to get on bases without hitting. Many times while waiting for a pass, he did not miss theball, but was out bn called strikeswhen his judgment differed with thatof the umpire.Zim hits at so many bad balls andis so much of a break hitter no rulewill hold in his case."Chop hitters" will not alwaysmake higher averages than "free hitters," but may be more valuable totheir teams. The batter who canmeet the ball is more valuable at theplate than the batter who misseswhen runners need to be protected,when the hit and run play is on, orwhen almost any sort of play will leta runner in from third.More time is spent teaching youngplayers to meet the ball than to crackit into safe territory for, after all, thisthing of one batter getting the ballsafe more times than a player whomeets the pill more often and just assquarely is something than can hardly be explained.Cobb, Collins and other great batters are neither "chop hitters" nor"free hitters." They hold their batsdifferent ways and hit differentlyagainst different kinds of pitching.The greatest exponent of the"choke-the-bat-and-meet - the - ball"style was Wee Willie Keeler. Hestruck out fewer times than anyplayer that ever swung a bat and hit.300 or better 13 consecutive years.Basketball ScoresU. of Chicage 39, First Pres. 27.I. A. C. 58, Seward Meteors 23.West Side Browns 56, Belvidere 32.Evanston 77, Lewis 7.Hamlin Park 26, St Jarlaths 22.o oCORONER'S JURY REOPENS AMYSTERIOUS DEATH CASE .A coroner's jury-has re-opened theinquest into the death of Sipke Hoekstra, a paving contractor who wasfound dead from a bullet wound withthe clothes partly burned from hisbody on a prairie at Division st andthe St Paul tracks, Oct 31. The juryreturned another open verdict andinstructed the police to get busy.Long ago the police said "suicide"and forgot about the case. The coroner's jury had returned a verdictthat Hoekstra had shot himself.This stirred Mrs. Hoekstra to action. She started out by accusingthe police of "laying down" on theca.se and demanded that a more complete investigation be made.Hoekstra was assaulted less thana week before his death. His clotheswere fired after the bullet killed him.The revolver found near his body wasnot his. He left a wife and sevenchildren.THAT'S WORTH SOMETHING"I can say one thing in favor ofthe automobile," remarked grouchyold Everett True, smoking the blackseegar, "and that is it has made themortgage respectable."o oShortage of skilled workmen andthe increase of war brides has causeda wedding ring famine in GreatBritain.